Community life

Bushey Synagogue's Rabbi Meir Salasnik has cancelled all engagements for the next few months because of ill health.

Congregants have been informed of the news by letter. The shul gave no indication of his illness but said "the early prognosis is positive". Alternative arrangements will be made through the synagogue office for congregants who had booked the rabbi to officiate at a function.

Rabbi Salasnik, 58, has been minister at Bushey since 1979. He is secretary of the Chief Rabbi's cabinet and is responsible for hospital visitation.

Nurseries at voluntary-aided schools are facing almost unprecedented demand for places in September, with some receiving five applications per place.

Although it is recognised that parents will make applications to a number of schools, head teachers have expressed concern about the small number of places remaining after siblings have been accommodated.

Simon Goulden, education consultant at the United Synagogue, said a number of issues had impacted on the situation this year.

New Immanuel College governors' chair Dr Sara Levene is well aware of what the Bushey school has to offer. Her daughter Dodie, a medical student at Imperial College, was Immanuel's head girl in 2007/08. Her son Harry sits his GCSEs at Immanuel this year.

A medical and special needs recruitment adviser for the Metropolitan Police, Dr Levene has also served the Child Accident Prevention Trust and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths.

Previously a Hasmonean Primary governor, she sees Immanuel as a school "able to support academic high achievers".

Western Marble Arch Synagogue's "best ever" treasurer has quit in despair over the continuing friction between the shul and the Western Charitable Foundation, which is responsible for maintaining the synagogue premises.

Henry Ejdelbaum - whose prudent housekeeping over the past three years has slashed membership fees by up to 40 per cent - has explained his "personal and principled decision" to resign in a letter to the board and shul members.

"I thought I was going to be able to introduce positive changes but it became clear that this was an impossible task," he wrote.

Public buses for Jewish schools and better job possibilities for the Orthodox on the capital's transport system are to be considered by Transport for London after a meeting with rabbonim and other leading figures.

TfL organised the Hendon meeting to improve communication with the Jewish community and discuss commuting concerns, also including antisemitism on buses and calls for improved services between major Jewish areas.

A direct bus link between Stamford Hill and Golders Green was all but ruled out after TfL commissioner Peter Hendy said there were too many complications.

Big is beautiful at Nightingale House, Britain's largest residential home, where the 200 residents are served by over 500 staff and volunteers and have access to a GP surgery, pharmacy, dentist, hairdressers and shul.

Nightingale has been offering residential and nursing care to elderly Jews in its Clapham premises for over 100 years. It opened in 1908 after banker and philanthropist Lord Wandsworth, the Viscount de Stern, purchased the Nightingale Lane building for £5,200. The first residents moved from the Home for Aged Jews in Hackney, created by the merger of three charities in 1894.

Four new charities to help teenagers and families have risen from the ashes of a recession-hit one.

A year ago, the Northwest Clubhouse in Hendon was on the verge of closure after one of its main funders suffered heavy losses in the credit crunch.

"We had to see if there was some way of restructuring so that we could ensure somehow that the services we provided would continue," said one of its leaders, Harris Rosenberg. "We achieved that - and in fact the constituent parts have not only continued but have thrived in the ensuing year."